Why look you still so stern and tragical? GLOUCESTER Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand. KING HENRY VI Fie, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach That malice was a great and grievous sin;And will not you maintain the thing you teach, But prove a chief offender in the same? WARWICK Sweet king! the bishop hath a kindly gird.
For shame, my lord of Winchester, relent!
What, shall a child instruct you what to do?
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee;Love for thy love and hand for hand I give. GLOUCESTER [Aside] Ay, but, I fear me, with a hollow heart.--See here, my friends and loving countrymen, This token serveth for a flag of truce Betwixt ourselves and all our followers:
So help me God, as I dissemble not!
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER [Aside] So help me God, as I intend it not! KING HENRY VI O, loving uncle, kind Duke of Gloucester, How joyful am I made by this contract!
Away, my masters! trouble us no more;
But join in friendship, as your lords have done.
First Serving-man Content: I'll to the surgeon's.
Second Serving-man And so will I.
Third Serving-man And I will see what physic the tavern affords.
Exeunt Serving-men, Mayor, & c WARWICK Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign, Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet We do exhibit to your majesty. GLOUCESTER Well urged, my Lord of Warwick: or sweet prince, And if your grace mark every circumstance, You have great reason to do Richard right;Especially for those occasions At Eltham Place I told your majesty. KING HENRY VI And those occasions, uncle, were of force:
Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is That Richard be restored to his blood. WARWICK Let Richard be restored to his blood;So shall his father's wrongs be recompensed.
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER As will the rest, so willeth Winchester. KING HENRY VI If Richard will be true, not that alone But all the whole inheritance I give That doth belong unto the house of York, From whence you spring by lineal descent.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET Thy humble servant vows obedience And humble service till the point of death. KING HENRY VI Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;And, in reguerdon of that duty done, I gird thee with the valiant sword of York:
Rise Richard, like a true Plantagenet, And rise created princely Duke of York.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall!
And as my duty springs, so perish they That grudge one thought against your majesty! ALL Welcome, high prince, the mighty Duke of York! SOMERSET [Aside] Perish, base prince, ignoble Duke of York! GLOUCESTER Now will it best avail your majesty To cross the seas and to be crown'd in France:
The presence of a king engenders love Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends, As it disanimates his enemies. KING HENRY VI When Gloucester says the word, King Henry goes;For friendly counsel cuts off many foes. GLOUCESTER Your ships already are in readiness.
Sennet. Flourish. Exeunt all but EXETER EXETER Ay, we may march in England or in France, Not seeing what is likely to ensue.
This late dissension grown betwixt the peers Burns under feigned ashes of forged love And will at last break out into a flame:
As fester'd members rot but by degree, Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away, So will this base and envious discord breed.
And now I fear that fatal prophecy Which in the time of Henry named the Fifth Was in the mouth of every sucking babe;That Henry born at Monmouth should win all And Henry born at Windsor lose all:
Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish His days may finish ere that hapless time.
Exit SCENE II. France. Before Rouen. Enter JOAN LA PUCELLE disguised, with four Soldiers with sacks upon their backs JOAN LA PUCELLE These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen, Through which our policy must make a breach:
1
Talk like the vulgar sort of market men That come to gather money for their corn.
If we have entrance, as I hope we shall, And that we find the slothful watch but weak, I'll by a sign give notice to our friends, That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them. First Soldier Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city, And we be lords and rulers over Rouen;Therefore we'll knock.
Knocks Watch [Within] Qui est la? JOAN LA PUCELLE Paysans, pauvres gens de France;Poor market folks that come to sell their corn. Watch Enter, go in; the market bell is rung. JOAN LA PUCELLE Now, Rouen, I'll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.
Exeunt Enter CHARLES, the BASTARD OF ORLEANS, ALENCON, REIGNIER, and forces CHARLES Saint Denis bless this happy stratagem!
And once again we'll sleep secure in Rouen. BASTARD OF ORLEANS Here enter'd Pucelle and her practisants;Now she is there, how will she specify Where is the best and safest passage in? REIGNIER By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower;Which, once discern'd, shows that her meaning is, No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd.
Enter JOAN LA PUCELLE on the top, thrusting out a torch burning JOAN LA PUCELLE Behold, this is the happy wedding torch That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen, But burning fatal to the Talbotites!
Exit BASTARD OF ORLEANS See, noble Charles, the beacon of our friend;The burning torch in yonder turret stands. CHARLES Now shine it like a comet of revenge, A prophet to the fall of all our foes! REIGNIER Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends;Enter, and cry 'The Dauphin!' presently, And then do execution on the watch.
Alarum. Exeunt An alarum. Enter TALBOT in an excursion TALBOT France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears, If Talbot but survive thy treachery.
Pucelle, that witch, that damned sorceress, Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares, That hardly we escaped the pride of France.
Exit An alarum: excursions. BEDFORD, brought in sick in a chair. Enter TALBOT and BURGUNDY without: within JOAN LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, BASTARD OFORLEANS, ALENCON, and REIGNIER, on the walls JOAN LA PUCELLE Good morrow, gallants! want ye corn for bread?
I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast Before he'll buy again at such a rate: